LookSee: 97 candidates coming for job interviews, seminars and tours

From more than 48,000 applications, Wellington tech employers have selected 97 outstanding candidates for interviews as part of the LookSee Wellington tech talent attraction programme.

The successful applicants will travel to Wellington next week for job interviews, immigration seminars and a tour of Wellington. The programme of activities includes options for delegates to visit Te Papa, Zealandia as well as opportunities to experience local mountain biking and the craft beer scene.

David Jones, WREDA General Manager, Business Growth & Innovation says the LookSee Team are looking forward to personally welcoming the candidates to Wellington.

“Just as these people will do their best to impress Wellington employers, the team aims to give them an impressive taste of our world-leading quality of life.

We’ll also provide them with the practical information they’ll need before relocating, especially those with partners and children, who will have plenty of questions.”

Damian Sainsbury, one of the Directors of Workhere New Zealand says working with employers to shortlist the enormous volume of candidates for this pioneering project was a rewarding challenge.

“The scale of the project was huge, with global media driving an unprecedented volume of applications from candidates all over the world. I was excited by the shortlist we put in front of our employers, and even more excited by the calibre of the people they selected.”

The candidates represent 28 nationalities, with the US, Canada and UK the top countries of origin.

The selected candidates will interview with a range of Wellington businesses for mid- to senior-level roles such as Software Engineer, Systems Analyst, ICT Project Manager and Chief Information Officer.

Kirsty Marsh, COO for Wellington tech company Wipster said the calibre of LookSee candidates was excellent;

“LookSee Wellington was a great opportunity to support further diversity in the Wellington tech community, and fill the international experience and skills gaps that we find when recruiting. We would definitely participate again.”

Lance Lones, Co-founder of L2VR adds that the LookSee Wellington program has brought a tremendous number of talented engineers and artists to their attention.

“The program has been a really innovative way of generating meaningful interaction with folks who have the capacity to hugely amplify Wellington’s ability to generate new technology in a way that would have been difficult to do natively. We can see that the potential knock-on effects of LookSee Wellington are dramatic and impactful beyond just the scope of the programme.”

Greg Forsythe from Immigration New Zealand said successful candidates would bring valuable skills to New Zealand. “The skills being sought by the Looksee Wellington employers are in high demand in New Zealand and globally, so it’s really gratifying to see such a highly skilled group so enthusiastic about the possibility of coming to Wellington.”

David Jones added that WREDA sees talent attraction as vital component of strategic workforce development for Wellington.

“To help fuel the vital growth in our tech sector, WREDA not only works to attract talent from beyond Wellington, we support initiatives to develop local tech skills, such as the Summer of Tech internship programme, and the Wellington ICT Graduate School. We also deliver the Regional Business Partnership programme in Wellington, which provides access to, among other things, capacity development funding for local growth-oriented businesses across a range of sectors, including tech.”

Mr Jones said the success of LookSee Wellington’s promotional phase meant that, beyond the selected group, a longer list of high-quality screened applicants was a valuable resource for Wellington.

“Along with the selected applicants, we’ve identified and connected with more than 1,000 very qualified tech professionals who are excited by the idea of investing their future here. We’re now looking at options to make the most of this opportunity, for the benefit of Wellington, and New Zealand.”

LookSee Wellington is brought to you by Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) and Workhere New Zealand, supported by Immigration New Zealand and NZTech.